Aviva
I wake to full sunlight bursting through ceiling height windows, warming the sheets covering a four poster bed. A cool morning breeze drifts through the open windows, ruffling the lace curtains as birdsong floats through the air.
It’s like something out of a dream. I stretch, groaning with delight as my skin slides over satin sheets, and relax with a slump.
I slept like the dead.
But as I feel toward the opposite side of the bed, the sheets are cool and empty. I roll over and reach for the bedside table where a piece of paper is propped against a vase full of fresh flowers.
“There’s breakfast down the hall in the pink room. I’ll see you later this afternoon.” I lie back with the note, smoothing my fingertip over the scribbles. Ryan has terrible handwriting. With a sigh, I roll out of bed and pad across the wide room. The carpet is soft, and the wallpaper is heavily detailed with intricate green and alabaster scrolls, trimmed with dark wood. The furniture is ancient. I run my fingers across a beautifully designed dresser, taking in the little carvings and details. This place–this castle–it’s incredible. It’s something out of the legends told around the fire when I was a child.
I change into a loose fitting shirt I packed from the village. It’s dark blue and hangs off one shoulder. I pull on what Ryan calls “shorts,” which he explained are simply pants cut off around the knees. They’re odd, but it’s far too hot to wear much else. I slide my feet into my sandals and leave the room.
I have no idea what the “pink room” is, but I’ve barely stepped through the door when a flash of white-blonde hair catches my attention.
“Oh! I didn’t think you were in there!” Sarah rushes toward me, carrying her youngest son, Liam, I think. He has a teddy bear clutched to his chest and a skeptical look on his cute face as they approach. “What are you up to?”
“Oh–breakfast, I think. Ryan left a note saying to go to the pink room.”
“We’re headed there now. Walk with me. You’ll get lost otherwise.” She chuckles. I fall in step beside her, and as we turn the corner, I spot Blake tumbling his way down the long, seemingly endless, hallway. Sarah smirks, rolling her eyes to mine as she motions to her oldest son. “I make them run around the halls first thing in the morning to burn some energy. This place is huge if you haven’t noticed.”
I look around, wondering just how far this one particular hallway stretches.
“Blake, right here,” Sarah calls out, pointing toward a stairway that came out of nowhere. Blake slides across a red carpet runner and climbs up the stairs on all fours. Sarah sighs, giving me a wry smile. “You mentioned you have a six-year-old sister?”
“I do. Lora.” A pang of grief strikes my chest. Goddess, I miss her. “She’s just like him. Full of energy.”
“So it never ends, does it?”
“No, I think it gets worse. I have a ten-year-old sister, too.”
“Great,” Sarah mumbles, but her eyes dance with amusement as we reach the top of the stairs and turn again, down another long hallway, but the smell of food is thick in the air, and voices drift from a set of open double doors.
Aris runs right into my legs in an attempt to tackle Blake, and before I even have a chance to step fully into the room, a riotous game of chase begins.
Kenna waves us over to a table drenched in sunshine. Glass doors overlook a deck with incredible views of the city below. I sit beside Sarah and feel…. “What is that?” I point to an almost transparent, glimmering sheet of light covering the open space where the doors to the balcony should be.
“It’s to keep the kids off the deck.” Kenna snaps her fingers, and the strange glimmers of light disappear. She snaps them again, and they return.
I flush, my fingers tingling with adrenaline as I slowly look at her. She’s not even looking at me. She’s trying desperately to get Maeve to try a strawberry, but Maeve is far more interested in chewing on the edge of the table.
“When are the guys supposed to be done with their meeting this morning?” Sarah asks as she plops Liam in the center of her lap.
“I’m not entirely sure.” Kenna sighs, giving up on the strawberry and setting Maeve down on the ground. She promptly crawls away. “Evander said not to expect him back until noon.”
I timidly reach for a platter of eggs, glancing back and forth between the women. “What’s going on?”
They look at me, their faces washed in similar looks of defeat and uncertainty. Kenna especially. She chews the inside of her cheek for a moment before saying, “Succession.”
Sarah nods.
“Succession?”
“Ryatt and Isaac are setting up the kids with their inheritances this week, which also means their future titles are being decided.” Sarah smiles faintly, pouring herself a cup of coffee while Liam continues to sit on her lap, picking at his teddy bear. “It’s nothing too serious.” She glances at Kenna, however.
Kenna inhales as she looks at Maeve, who’s clutching an ottoman, shrieking excitedly at the other kids as they run around the room.
“Kenna, it’s going to be okay,” Sarah says in a soothing voice, but Kenna’s eyes start to water.
I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be here for whatever conversation is about to take place. I barely know them. Something is obviously bothering Kenna to the point she’s about to cry.
“Kenna?” Sarah says.
Kenna shakes her head, forcing a smile. “I’m fine.”
“What’s wrong?” the words slip out before I can stop them. Kenna’s silver eyes meet mine, glassy with tears.
“I–Maeve is the first full-blooded Firestone witch born in over a thousand years. We just had her tested.” She sniffles, swallowing what looks like a sob as she continues, “Her powers are–a lot, for someone so little. We’ve been having some problems back in Veiled Valley and….” She meets Sarah’s eyes in a pained grimace. “I don’t know what to do.”
Sarah glances at me apologetically as Kenna bursts into tears.
Unsure what to do, I reach over and pat her back while Sarah whispers soothing things in her ear, all while the kids run around, screaming excitedly and tossing toys across the room at each other.
“Your mom is going to figure this out. The mystics are helping, Kenna. Maeve is going to be fine.”
“She b-bursts into silver flames when she’s upset about–about anything,” Kenna sobs. “What’s going to happen when she starts throwing t-t-tantrums? Will she burn the c-castle down? What if she spirits away again?”
“That happened?” I gape at them.
Sarah sighs heavily, stroking Kenna’s hair. “Yeah, a few weeks ago.”
“She was two miles away in the woods,” Kenna sputters. “It took us over an hour to find her.”
I stand, rubbing her back with more effort. Holy shit. The idea of a baby going through what I did yesterday is unfathomable. The idea that a baby has the ability to do it herself is… terrifying.
“She’s going to have to stay here with Mom and Dad,” Kenna says in an exasperated tone. “There’s no other option. She’s going to have to be kept contained until she’s old enough to start training her powers, and that’s–that’s years away. I can’t…. She’s stronger than me already! There’s nothing I can do!”
I look at the baby in question. She’s gnawing on the ottoman now, drooling like mad. Her eyes meet mine–a bright sea-green. She smiles widely at me, all gums, and laughs sharply. On the outside, she looks like a perfectly innocent little creature–a regular baby. A really cute one.
I immediately wonder what my future baby with Ryan will look like, smiling to myself, and instantly banish the thought when Kenna chokes on another sob.
“Nothing has been decided yet, Kenna.” Sarah soothes her, but her eyes meet mine. Suddenly, Sarah’s voice pings through my skull. ‘I know you don’t understand any of this yet, but thank you for being here right now.’
I nod, holding her gaze, too stunned and confused to speak.
Sarah continues raking her fingers through Kenna’s hair, “There will be a solution soon. I know it.”
“I’m going to have to leave her here. She’s so much calmer here in Moonrise. She’s literally made for this-this place. Her powers are so much easier to control here.”
“Kenna.” Evander’s voice cuts through the fray of emotions and screaming children.
She immediately looks up, sniffling, and her mate's face is… so broken. He exhales, taking a single second to gather himself before walking over to her.
Sarah and I step out of his way, watching as he leads her out of the room while leaving their kids behind to continue playing with their cousins. Before I can think about what I’m doing, I reach down and scoop Maeve into my arms, bouncing her on my hip as she begins to fuss.
Then I remember this baby can apparently burst into silver flames, whatever that means, and gently set her back down on the floor, taking a step away.
“Welcome to the circus,” Sarah grumbles, her hands on her hips.
Circus indeed.
* * *
Ryan looks stressed as he rifles through the closet in our bedroom, pulling out several options of shirts and pants for himself.
“So… Kenna can turn into a literal shadow and has… fire power?”
“Pretty much,” he says absently.
“And Sarah can manipulate time?”
“Yep.”
“You’re saying this so casually!”
“The longer you know us, the less weird this will be, I promise.”
I rise from my perch on the end of the bed, hugging myself with my arms. “And Maeve might have to be separated from her parents? Is that what’s happening?”
“No.” But Ryan sighs heavily, bracing his hands on the dresser. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. From what I was told today, it sounds like Ryatt and Ella are trying to find a solution, maybe sending Kenna and her family back to Veiled Valley with a few witches to help out with Maeve, to try to contain the issue.”
I nod, but I can’t wrap my head around anything that’s going on. My brain is literal mush as he turns to me, sighing, his shoulder slumping. “Do you want to get out of here?”
“Out of the castle?”
He nods, rolling his lip between his teeth. “I want to show you the city. I thought I’d have time earlier today, but I was woken up by Ryatt’s voice in my head telling me to get my ass down to his office. I’m sorry I pretty much abandoned you this morning.”
“You had a very good reason to.” I laugh. To my relief, he laughs too, agreeing that this is just… insane. Most people have family drama, but his family takes it to another level. “I had a good time with Sarah and all the kids, anyway.”
“We’re going out tonight.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m taking you to have dinner in the city, just the two of us, and then we’re meeting up with my brother, Evander, and the girls to go clubbing.”
I’ve come to realize that whenever “the girls” are mentioned, it’s Sarah and Kenna. I’m sure I fall into this category now, too. “Clubbing?”
“Dancing,” he says matter-of-factly.
I arch a brow, sitting back on the bed as he edges a few steps in my direction. “Do you even dance?”
“I danced at our wedding.”
“I wouldn’t call that dancing. It was more like… dragging you around in a circle, watching you trip over your own feet.”
He leans over me, caging me in. “I’d known you for four days when we got married, if you care to remember. Do you think I had time to learn the stupidly complicated dances your pack is known for?”
“Endova isn’t known for our dances.” I giggle. The sound turns into a soft moan as he dips his head, brushing his mouth over the side of my neck. I close my eyes as heat thrums through me, igniting that desperate desire that’s been building for days now, unsatisfied.
He nips my neck, one of his hands pressing on my lower back to stop me from lying down. He has me right where he wants me and I’m… drowning in him. Everything else fades. The room around us ceases to exist. It’s just me, and him, and–
“She’s going to need something to wear,” Kenna’s voice erupts in his sitting room.
“The blue one, I think. Neither of us can fit into it anymore, not after the kids.” Sarah and Kenna laugh as they close in on the bedroom.
“Shit,” Ryan whispers, clicking his tongue in annoyance. “Remind me to lock that fucking door when we come home tonight.”